Nathan Fahl, 28, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing a bait car and driving without a licence.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Crime Stoppers
April 27, 2017 - 1:17 PM
KELOWNA – A local prolific offender may have found religion while in jail but that didn’t stop a Kelowna judge from giving him a hefty sentence.
Nathan Fahl, 28, was arrested last spring after police were notified the doors of a bait car had been opened. The car, which was equipped with video cameras and a GPS transmitter, was found abandoned on Postill Lake Road.
Well-known to police, Fahl was recognized from the footage and arrested a month later following the issuance of a warrant.
Fahl has an extensive history in B.C. courts including a 2012 conviction for dangerous operation of motor vehicle, driving with a suspended licence in 2011 and several other charges going back to 2007. He is best known for being in a vehicle with two other people on Dec. 6, 2013, when they allegedly tried to avoid a police road check on Springfield Road after leaving a house party in Rutland.
During the ensuing pursuit, a fire hydrant was damaged and 41-year-old newspaper carrier Steve Kania was seriously injured.
Fahl was originally charged with six offences, including dangerous and impaired driving causing bodily harm, failing to stop at an accident and carrying or threatening to use a weapon, but charges were stayed when one of his passengers, Donald Brodie, claimed he was the driver.
At the time of his sentencing for the bait car theft, Fahl had been in custody for breaching a condition of his release by getting kicked out of a Lake Country outreach centre. His lawyer Michael Newcombe described him as “functionally illiterate," with a grade three education and “of limited intellectual ability.” Despite this, he said, Fahl has turned his life around.
“The lords changed my view so much… the way I feel about giving back to the community… is one of my top goals,” Fahl told Judge Richard Hewson at the sentencing yesterday, April 26. “I would love to have that change to show… I can be a productive member of society.”
Crown lawyer Grant Grey asked for a sentence of 27 months for the vehicle theft with an additional three months for driving without a licence.
Hewson agreed despite Newcombe calling it “excessive” for a “joyride.”
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